Clients who have unreasonable expectations

Hello everyone! This is Robert Mansour. Today, I wanted to make a brief video about something that happened to me in the past on one of my cases, where it was a very good lesson for subsequent clients that I had. Here is what happened: I had a client who was involved in a moderate car accident, not a very big deal.

Her injuries were not that dramatic. Primarily what we call "soft tissue" injuries - pulled muscles, pulled ligaments, sprain and strain, etc. (things that eventually go away over time with some care and some physical therapy, et cetera.) She was upset with me because I wouldn't guarantee her $250,000 on her case.

She thought she was supposed to get $250,000. She had heard about a friend of hers or somebody, a relative that got a lot of money under personal injury case. She thought that was going to happen to her. I told her - I tried to explain to her that the old days when you saw bumper stickers on peoples cars that says, "Hit me. I need the money!" Those days are over.

If you don't have a significant injury, do not expect any kind of significant result. Generally speaking, soft tissue cases do not yield very big results. If clients are aware of that, then that's great. If they have unreasonable expectations about their case and they think they're going to get $250,000, that's probably not a very good idea.

Here is the thing. You have to have realistic expectations. By the way, she ended up hiring another lawyer who promised her $250,000, and I later learned that her case settled for a few thousand dollars tops. One of the things that you should do is have realistic expectations and realize that the hype of those late night TV commercials and all the promises and the stories you may have heard - many of them might be embellished.

There might be the occasional fluke case, where somebody got a huge amount of money for a very minor injury, but those are few and far between. That is the exception to the rule. I hope you found this video to be helpful. If you need more educational information, please visit my website at valencialawyer.com. Thank you very much!  Call us at (661) 414-7100.